Ann Romney, in an interview with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee taped before Ryan's speech, said Ryan and her husband are a "dynamic duo" who complement one another: "They're both very wonky when it comes to the intricacies of the budget ... You get the two of them together and they're like two pigs in slop."

Former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is encouraging voters to support Mitt Romney because President Barack Obama is “extremely wealthy” and can’t relate to the “common man.”

USA Today caught up with Bachmann at the Republican National Convention earlier this week and asked her how someone with “vast wealth” like Romney could “connect with the American public, really understand what the plight of the American public?”

“Well, President Obama is extremely wealthy,” Bachmann replied. “He and his wife have been wealthy for a number of years, and so I think that’s really the issue. Obama is wealthy, what do, or — what does he understand about the common man right now?”

“And I think what people care about is not hating someone for what their assets are — the American people don’t hate President Obama because he’s a very wealthy individual,” she added.

“What they care about is how their lives are, would their lives be better? And I think it’s very clear under the Romney-Ryan ticket the average Americans’ lives will be much better, they’ll have a lot more money to spend in the way that they want, and they’ll also have a much more secure future for their children.”

The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released Tuesday a new batch of documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood film-makers about the Bin Laden raid. Obama officials did so to enable the production of a politically beneficial pre-election film about that "heroic" killing, even as administration lawyers insisted to federal courts and media outlets that no disclosure was permissible because the raid was classified.

Thanks to prior disclosures from Judicial Watch of documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, this is old news. That's what the Obama administration chronically does: it manipulates secrecy powers to prevent accountability in a court of law, while leaking at will about the same programs in order to glorify the president.

But what is news in this disclosure are the newly released emails between Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times's national security and intelligence reporter, and CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf. The CIA had evidently heard that Maureen Dowd was planning to write a column on the CIA's role in pumping the film-makers with information about the Bin Laden raid in order to boost Obama's re-election chances, and was apparently worried about how Dowd's column would reflect on them. On 5 August 2011 (a Friday night), Harf wrote an email to Mazzetti with the subject line: "Any word??", suggesting, obviously, that she and Mazzetti had already discussed Dowd's impending column and she was expecting an update from the NYT reporter.

A mere two minutes after the CIA spokeswoman sent this Friday night inquiry, Mazzetti responded. He promised her that he was "going to see a version before it gets filed", and assured her that there was likely nothing to worry about:

Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands.

The exclusive event, hosted by a Florida developer on his yacht "Cracker Bay," was one of a dozen exclusive events meant to nurture those who have raised more than $1 million for Romney's bid.

"I think it's ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn't even pay its taxes," said a woman who lives aboard a much smaller boat moored at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.

Romney's Cayman-based investments have come under fire during the campaign.

The event, attended by no more than 50 people, along with Romney relatives, including older brother Scott, appeared on no public calendars. ABC News obtained a schedule of the Romney campaign's "Victory Council" and waited dockside to speak with members.